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July 10, 2013

Watermelon Diary

So, the other weekend JD and I decided against our better judgement to start a watermelon beer. Oh yeah, I'm not sure if I have mentioned much of it but a couple of months ago JD bought a home brew kit and we started making little batches. So far we have made a Belgian Caramel Wit, Blueberry Ale, and a Vanilla Porter. We were originally planning to wait until after the bar exam to make the watermelon since JD would be busy studying and I would have to do most of it on my own. Well we forgot about that and today I did the transfer solo, documenting every step of the way for JD.

One. Lifting the thing up on top of the dryer. I may have bruised my thigh getting it up there but I managed.

Two. I have absolutely no idea how to pick a watermelon so I picked one that looked as even in color as possible and wasn't too heavy so I could carry it. I buckled it in for the car ride home just to be safe.

Three. I sliced the watermelon in half AFTER sanitizing EVERYTHING. Don't worry.

Four. In improv, slicing your fruit before putting it in a blender may appear to be out of the ordinary behavior. Those blades are more than capable of mashing that watermelon for you, but it's okay, you really, really love your blender, we get it. In reality, it does actually help to chop it up before putting it into the (sanitized) blender. The larger chunks took longer to blend than the smaller ones, so there.

Five. Blending

Six. I sanitized a bowl to pour the watermelon juice into since the whole thing wouldn't fit in the blender. Here they are side by side, the whole watermelon.

Seven. My hand is not big enough to cover the opening of the carboy like JD's does so I did my best in sanitizing in an improvised way, meaning it took longer so I didn't spill santizer all over the floor. Once everything was clean and ready to go I poured the watermelon in straight from the blender which did not require a funnel. It did however take up quite a bite of space in the carboy. The size of watermelon was not specified in the recipe. We'll have to wait and see how it comes out.

Eight. Getting the lid off of the big container was a pain in the butt. This is what it looked like freshly opened. It smelled pretty good too.

Nine. Let the transfer begin!

Ten. Once the transfer I took the hydrometer reading, but declined to taste the sample as it was very cloudy, which was completely my fault. The sediment at the bottom of the bucket got stirred up when I tried to take the sample as it was too shallow at that point.

Eleven. I put the airlock on and slid it back into the corner where it will wait for another ten or so days before bottling.

Twelve. Spilled sanitizer everywhere while drinking to drain the bucket in the sink. It was very graceful and obviously unphotographed.